Natural recipe for beauty

Janet Wilson, Postmedia News05.04.2011

Charmaine Cianciullo, an esthetician with 10 years experience and a deep passion for living a natural lifestyle, is an activist for safe cosmetics and helps educate others on the toxic nature of the beauty industry.

Consumers might wish they had a couple of science degrees to help them understand the ingredient list on most cosmetics and beauty products. Lucky for...

Charmaine Cianciullo isn't a singer or an aspiring actress, but the Ottawa organic esthetician is making waves in social media. Since she began blogging in 2008, she has become a leading voice in the movement for safe, natural cosmetics garnering 15,000 followers on Twitter, 250,000 YouTube views and a recent feature in the Huffington Post.

"I have a great message and people want to hear it," said Cianciullo, who is a recent convert to the green movement. She is behind Manotick’s Peppermint Organic Spa, where she offers handmade skin care, nail and hair removal treatments free of synthetic ingredients created for each client’s specific skin type.

Cianciullo had a life-altering moment three years ago while reading the book, Not Just a Pretty Face: The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry by Stacy Malkan.

"I was in the process of trying to get gorgeous to fit into my wedding dress by losing weight and eating healthier. I was given the book as a Christmas gift and what I read made me want to quit my job. I didn’t want to work in a toxic environment or expose customers to chemicals," said Cianciullo, who was working in an area spa at the time.

The former model has long been an advocate of positive body image for young girls. In 2008, she started the popular video blog Glamology.com, which is a guide to natural and organic makeup, skin care, fashion, and nutrition, and is the owner of MintandBerry.com, an online eco-beauty boutique.

"The media want women to look like celebrities. We bake our skin in the sun and apply cosmetics laced with chemicals wanting to look beautiful. It’s like going to McDonalds for a meal. You get instant satisfaction, but you feel lousy 30 minutes later. The same can be said about your skin."

Cianciullo opened a spa in her Gloucester home and began networking with others in the green movement. Two years ago, she went to Los Angeles to visit the women behind the website Greengirls.com to pick up tips on how to craft a successful message. She is now a contributing editor on the site.

"In a single visit to a beauty or nail salon, a woman can easily be exposed to thousands of potentially harmful chemicals. The biggest organ on a human is our skin. The big brand names are the most guilty when it comes to using chemicals."

The 30-year-old esthetician has recently moved to Manotick, opening a soothing, bright space in her new home on Rideau Valley Drive.

Cianciullo prefers to work with "the simple stuff found on the Earth" such as Manuka honey from the New Zealand bee, shea butter, beeswax, essential oils for fragrance, vegetable glycerine, argan oil to hydrate the skin and pure aloe gel with no preservatives or alcohol. Corn starch is used in favour of talc powder and walnut husks and raw sugar for exfoliants for pedicures.

Cianciullo is attracting a different clientele and admits it can be challenging to educate her longtime clients, but many are willing to give it a try.

"The most important thing for everyone, especially women, is to realize that there is a lack of governmental regulation with respect to ingredients in personal-care products, and it’s up to each of us to personally determine if a product is safe."

Ottawa has a bevy of like-minded women who are also behind successful organic skin care companies and spas, including Revolution Organics, Lilou Organics, Exuberance Beauty, and Oresta Organic Skin Care Confectionery, to name a few.

A key resource for learning about the potential health risks associated with cosmetics is the Environmental Working Group’s website, cosmeticsdatabase.com.

The site features a collection of personal-care product ingredient listings with more than 50 toxicity and regulatory databases.

"Conventional creams, scrubs, and nail polishes used in most spas contain a cocktail of synthetic chemicals, including parabens, petroleum by-products and phthalates; all of which have been linked to health issues from headaches, eye, nose and throat irritation, nervous system disorders, skin conditions like eczema, birth defects, hormone disruption and damage to the liver and kidneys," Cianciullo said.

"Ottawa has a lot of women spreading the natural, organic message. I’m the new kid on the block. Hopefully we can all work together."

Five natural beauty tips

1. Get rid of your conventional nail polish and opt for a water-based solution.

2. Include mineral makeup with your beauty regimen. Don’t use products with colour additives. Earth's Beauty mineral makeup is a favourite of Cianciullo.

4. Natural facial oils such as argan oil are an ideal way of hydrating the skin. You can put a few drops in bath water, face and on your hair to control frizz.

5. Baking soda can be used to whiten your teeth and sprinkled on the palm of your hands, patted onto your arm pits for protection against sweating.

What’s in your beauty products?

A 2007 national survey conducted by Environmental Working Group (ewg.org) determined that ’the average adult is exposed to 168 hazardous chemicals each day.’

Of the 82,000 ingredients used in personal-care products more than 10,000 are industrial chemicals, including carcinogens, pesticides and reproductive toxins, according to the David Suzuki Foundation.

Although most ingredients in cosmetics have never been tested for their effects on human health and the environment, Health Canada does not require pre-market testing of chemicals used in cosmetics.

Manufacturers are not required to disclose specific fragrance ingredients on the product label. Instead, the generic term parfum is listed, representing a mixture of potentially dozens of chemicals.

Your skin absorbs things easily. Anything that is applied to the skin -- such as moisturizers, lipsticks, deodorants -- are absorbed into the body and into the blood stream just as if you’d eaten it.

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